The Telegraph

New Royal Opera House chief: runners and riders

Rupert Christiansen picks out the top contenders for the position of Royal Opera House Chief Executive.

LA Times

James Conlon plans to stay at the Los Angeles Opera through 2018

The 62-year-old conductor has renewed his contract with the Los Angeles Opera for five more years, and will remain music director at least through the end of the 2017-18 season.

Classic FM

Newcastle Council U-turn on arts funding cuts plan

Newcastle City Council has backed down on plans to cut 100% of arts funding in the city, news which has delighted arts leaders throughout the country.

Oscar-nominated director Michael Haneke directs Mozart opera

Michael Haneke’s second directorial job on a full opera will premiere on Saturday, as Mozart’s Cose Fan Tutte takes to the stage in Madrid.

Classical Music Magazine

Peregrine’s Pianos offers exclusive tour of Schimmel factory

London piano merchant Peregrine’s Pianos is organising a trip for up to 20 guests to Schimmel’s factory in Braunschweig, Germany, to enjoy the opportunity ‘to wander around the factory, try the pianos and ask the questions they’ve always wanted to ask’.

DW (via Arts Journal)

Berlin project takes opera to unexpected places

Dreary period pieces? Pricey tickets? Stuffy atmosphere? Not at the Kiez Oper! Aiming to bring opera to new audiences, the group behind the Berlin project is staging its latest production in an abandoned swimming pool.

Classical Music Magazine

(Written on February 22, 2013 )

Tonight is Vignette Productions’ and Kiez Oper’s opening night of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. This interactive and immersive adaptation takes place at ‘the notoriously rowdy’ Salon Zur Wilden Renate nightclub in Berlin and is followed by a ‘techno rave-’ as Berlin based daily email magazine Sugar High puts it: ‘it is time to embrace the unexpected’. With the cast made up of singers from the prestigious International Studio at the Berlin Staatsoper and from around Berlin, a full Baroque Ensemble led by Benjamin Bayl, staging by WildKat’s own Andy Staples, this event is not to be missed!

Tickets are still available for performances this evening and tomorrow:

http://www.sugarhigh.de/issue/675-opera-til-fat-lady-sings

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/258515

(Written on July 20, 2012 )

In just a few weeks’ time, Vignette Productions is collaborating with the exciting Kiez Opera in an electrifying new project. Taking place in the garden of Wilde Renate, one of East Berlin’s techno clubs, the project features a two-night run of ‘Dido and Aeneas’ presenting singers from the Berlin Staatsoper Young Artist Programme. On the 20^th and 21^st of July, Purcell’s work is condensed from its usual 3 hours of performance to just one action-packed hour, and is aimed and the younger crowd of Berlin at just 10 euros a ticket: taking ‘opera to the people’ (Exberliner Magazine).

Tickets can be bought from the fair-trade ticket company: Brown Paper Tickets, here.

Kiez Oper

(Written on July 9, 2012 )